Introduction / Ian Jack -- Blood / Urvashi Butalia -- Freedom / Sanjeev Saith -- Wild things / Edward Hoagland -- Kashmir / James Buchan -- Five hours to Simla / Anita Desai -- Mumbai / Suketu Mehta and Sebastião Salgado -- Kabir Street / R.K. Narayan -- My father's raj / Mark Tully -- Coming down / Ved Mehta -- After Gandhi / Trevor Fishlock -- Caste wars / William Dalrymple -- Pariah / Viramma -- Notebooks / V.S. Naipaul -- My hundredth year / Nirad Chaudhuri -- An accidental spy / Phillip Knightley -- Mother India / Dayanita Singh -- Waking / Amit Chaudhuri -- Sampati / Vikram Seth -- What we lost / Michael Ondaatje -- Clive's castle / Jan Morris -- Things can change in a day / Arundhati Roy